Dir: Pirko Hankaasalo | Finland – Drama – 2025
After making a series of documentaries Pirko Hankaasalo’s mini masterpiece Concrete Night was selected to represent Finland at the 87th Academy Awards. Now the director and cinematographer is back, over a decade later, with a female character study Orenda, a soulful but sublime seaside story centering on two suffering souls.
Nora, an accomplished opera singer whose life has come to an abrupt standstill after her husband suicide, arrives on a remote lighthouse island to fulfil his burial wishes. There she meets Natalia, a priest who spiritual life is in crisis.
After a difficult start the two women gradually come to terms with each other through their mutual turmoil and trauma to create a delicate but intense bond of trust and understanding. Their complex relationship has links to the past: it seems they are connected through a young boy.
The film delves deeply into their past as they attempt to understand the future and find a way forward in this quietly devastating portrait of loss and all kinds of love. @MeredithTaylor
ROTTERDAM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025 | BIG SCREEN